I first discussed the 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken #616 FF Error card in an article about expensive baseball card printing errors that was focused on modern cards. In it, I wrote that “Fleer didn’t notice that the Bill Ripken card they released had an obscenity written on the bottom of the bat he was holding. It spelled out, “F**k FACE.” After the company became aware of the error, they released subsequent printings with the words obscured. First, they had a blob of what appeared to be White-Out, then a pen scribble, and finally a black square. Ripken admitted that he wrote the words on the bat to spot it easily as his batting practice bat. Ripken also believes that Fleer couldn’t have missed the error and suggested that they enhanced it to generate extra publicity.”
The 5 Bill Ripken #616 cards have the following populations and approximate prices:
- Black Box Over Error – Total Population of 3948 – PSA 8 for ~$18
- Black Scribble Over Error – Total Population of 1572 – PSA 8 for ~$30
- FF Error – Total Population of 15464 – PSA 8 for ~$70 (The card everyone seems to want these days)
- Scribbled Out in White – Total Population of 130 – PSA 8 for ~$500+ (A lot of Variance)
- Whited Out Vulgarity – Total Population of 163 – PSA 8 for ~$480
Now, if you want to pull a 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken #616 FF Error card from a pack, you need to buy a case or an authenticated box from a trusted source with the right provenance.
There is a 5-digit number printed on 1989 Fleer cases. The case you buy needs the right numbering on it, or the box needs to list the 5-digit number of the case it came from. In the picture that follows, 83422 is printed in black ink on the lower right side.
The first digit is the print year, 9 for 1989, and 8 for 1988. The next three numbers represent the day of the year. 001 is for January 1st, 004 would be January 4th, and so on. The last digit is either a location or a shift.
Digits before 90171, January 17th, 1989, have the Bill Ripken FF error inside. I’ve been reading that the error has been verified in cases up to 90191, but I haven’t seen that myself.
The next two pictures and the case above will have the FF error since their codes are under 90171.
This 1989 Fleer Wax Box, authenticated by the Baseball Card Exchange, came from a case with code 90122; therefore, it may have a FF error inside.
The next two pictures are of cases that will not have the FF error since their codes are above 90171.
If you pull a 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken #616 FF error from a pack, let me know in the comments.